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MAY, 1927]
THE MEANING AND ETYMOLOGY OF PUJA
THE MEANING AND ETYMOLOGY OF POJA.
BY PROY, JARL CHARPENTIER, UPSALA.1
THE Rigveda tells us about the religion of the Aryans who had invaded India. By this statement we do not mean to suggest that only purely Aryan religious ideas are met with in the Ricah ; but on the whole they give a fairly true picture of the religion of those Aryan Brahmans amongst whom the composition of hymns and sacrificial science were already hereditary occupations, and also of that of their patrons, the Kshattriyas, who had by then got possession of vast lands conquered from the original inhabitants of the country. On the other hand, it cannot be strongly enough emphasized that the Rigveda is an Indian collection of hymns, the production of a truly Indian spirit, and that consequently it contains elements that did not originate in the Indo-Iranian period. ?
This religion is that of the upper classes of society, and can never have been that of the great masses, because its ideas are too complicated, its rituals too expensive. In the midst of its pantheon are found the darlings of the Brahmans, Agni, the divine Fire, and Soma, the deified ceremonial beverage. Both of them were well-known also to the Iranians, although they called the Fire, by another name (Atar), which perhaps tallies with its different position within the Iranian cults. Further, we find gods of wholly uncertain origin, like Varuna and Mitra, undoubtedly identical with the Iranian Ahura Mazda and Mithra, though developed along quite different lines. Varuna, owing to his high moral qualities, seems a stranger amongst gods who are generally not immoral but amoral ; but nothing can be said for certain concerning his pretended Semitic origin. 3 There are still further gods like Indra and the Asvins, 4 who were perhaps at one time living chieftains of the old Indo-Iranians. And, finally, we meet there with Vishnu, the deified spirit of the sacrifice, and Rudra, an old demon who has taken on giant proportions. Both thes last were destined very soon after the period of the Rigveda to rise high above their fellow gods and to become the greatest gods of the Indian tribes.
All these gods are males. Female deities--with the sole exception of Ushas, the goddess of dawn--play no part amongst the Vedic gods except as wives of their 'husbands, i.e., the
1 From the Beiträge zur Literatur Wissenschaft und Geistenyeschichte Indions. F'colyabe H. Jacobi dargebracht, Buim 1926, pp. 276 297.
* It is an ingenious though unionvincing ideu of Professor Elillebrandt that parts of the Rigveda were composed outside India. This idea is now repeated on a greater scale by Professor Hertel, but is nens the less quite unconvincing. The geography of the Rigveda points to the Punjab (in spite of the suggestions of Professor Keith and others) and purely Indian hebits are alluced to in the hymns. To quote only one instance, it must be proved that ghisit means something else in the Rigveda than in the whole rest of Indian literature ; for ghee is an Indian in vention which was totally unknown to the Aryans outside India.
8 Recent literature on Varuna is found, e.g., in Johansson, Uber die altindische Göttin Dhisará und Ver wandtes (Upsala 1919, extensively reviewed by Oldenberg. Gött. gel. Anzeigen, 1919. PP. 347-364): Güntert Der arische Weltkönig und Heiland (Loipzig 1923); Heymann, Festgabe Jacobi (1926). p. 201 499 : Hillebrandt Zeitschrift für Indoloyie u. Iranistik, vol. IV, p. 207 nq. But in spite of all this nothing certain has been ascertained concerning the nature of this mysterious god. His presence amongst the gods mon. tioned at Boghaz-Koui (cf. Konow, The Aryan Gods of the Mitanni, Christiania 1921) does not imply that those gods are Indian ; in the present writer's opinion they are all of Iranian origin.
1 On the Asvins, ef. Hillebrandt, 1.c., vol. IV, p. 213 69.
8 Concerning this god I quite share the opinion of Dr. Barnett whose short but brilliant book Hindu Gode and Heroes (1922) seems to me to contain the best information that has hitherto been written on Indian religion in general. Concerning Vishnu already Johansson in his book Sofageln i Indien (Upsala 1910) was on the right track. The present writer avows that his opinions on Vedic religion and mythology have now here been influenced by Profesor Keith's extensive now work on that subject which does not, in general, mark any progress (cf. my extensive review in Bulletin of the School of Or. Stud., vol. IV, p. 33709.)
• Oy. Arbman, Rudra. Untersuchungen zum altindischen Glauben und Kulma (poala 1922).
